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FICTION

"Breaking Point" by C. J. Box. It was always good to see Butch Roberson, Joe Pickett thought - a hardworking, upright local business owner whose daughter was friends with his own. Little did he know that when he talked to Butch that day in the forest, the man was about to disappear. He was heading into the mountains to scout elk, he said, but instead he was running. Two EPA employees had just been murdered, and all signs pointed to him as the killer. As the manhunt organized itself, Joe heard more of the story - about the tract of land Butch and his wife had bought to build their retirement home on, until the EPA declared it a wetland. About the penalties they charged him when he balked, new ones piling up every day, until the family was torn apart ... and finally, it seems, the man just cracked. It was an awful story. But was it the whole story? The more Joe looks into it, the more he begins to wonder - and the more he finds himself in the middle of a war he never expected and never wanted.

"The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat" by Edward Kelsey Moore. Meet Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. Earl's All-You-Can-Eat is home away from home for this inseparable Plainview, Ind., trio. Dubbed "the Supremes" by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they weather life's storms together for the next four decades. Now, during their most challenging year yet, dutiful, proud, and talented Clarice must struggle to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband's humiliating infidelities. Beautiful, fragile Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair. And fearless Odette engages in the most terrifying battle of her life while contending with the idea she has inherited more than her broad frame from her notorious pot-smoking mother, Dora. Through marriage, children, happiness, and the blues, these strong, funny women gather each Sunday at the same table at Earl's diner for delicious food, juicy gossip, occasional tears, and uproarious banter.

"Swimming at Night" by Lucy Clarke. Katie's world is shattered by news her headstrong and bohemian younger sister, Mia, has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff in Bali. The authorities say Mia jumped - that her death was a suicide. Although they'd hardly spoken to each other since Mia suddenly left on an around-the-world trip six months earlier, Katie refuses to accept that her sister would have taken her own life. Distraught that they never made peace, Katie leaves her orderly, sheltered life in London behind and embarks on a journey to find the truth. With only the entries in Mia's travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister's life and - page by page, country by country - begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her death.

NONFICTION

"Raising Cubby: A Father and Son's Adventures with Asperger's, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives: by John Elder Robison. John Robison was never a model child, and he wasn't a model dad, either. Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at the age of 40, he approached fatherhood as a series of logic puzzles and practical jokes. He read electrical engineering manuals to Cubby at bedtime. He told Cubby wizards turned children into stone when they misbehaved. Still, John got the basics right. And he gave Cubby a life of adventure. By the time Cubby was 10, he'd steered a Coast Guard cutter, driven a freight locomotive and run an antique Rolls Royce into a fence. The one thing John couldn't figure out was what to do when school authorities decided Cubby was dumb and stubborn - the very same thing he had been told as a child. Did Cubby have Asperger's, too? The answer was unclear. One thing was clear, though: By the time he turned 17, Cubby had become a brilliant chemist - smart enough to make military-grade explosives and bring state and federal agents calling. Afterward, with Cubby facing up to 60 years in prison, both father and son were forced to take stock of their lives, finally coming to terms with being "on the spectrum" as both a challenge and a unique gift.